A “New Christianity” by J. N. Q.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 4, 1910

A “New Christianity”

By J. N. Q.

In the current number of the Biblical World, issued by the University of Chicago press, there appears an editorial, responsibility for which is accepted by thirteen editors, which points to the coming of a “new Christianity,”—a Christianity which shall result in “the releasing of men’s minds from the bonds of tradition and creed.” The Christianity of Jesus Christ honored the Word of God, especially “Moses and the prophets.” The attitude of the new Christianity is thus stated:—

If there be a controversy between Genesis and geology, the new Christianity will stand with geology. The record left in the strata of the earth can not be impugned by a poet of the prescientific age, even though that poet be also a prophet of a higher conception of God than had before his day prevailed. In conformity to the same principle, the new Christianity will accept the assured result of historical investigation into the records of ancient times. Religion has its rights, but so also has history; and one of these is that it be studied by historical methods.

He who has received the Bible “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God,” and who has experienced the power of its effective work in his own life, will put this “new Christianity” in the category of “another gospel,” and will regard its science as a science “so-called.” Truly, departure from the faith is a prominent characteristic of our times.

J. N. Q.